Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Winners and Losers

This morning at the gym, a woman was wearing a T-shirt that said: Winners Train, Losers Complain. Boy is there truth to that! Not just in the gym, but also in horses. Think about it. When was the last time you went to any kind of competition and the winner was someone who rolled out of bed that morning, decided "Meh, I'll load up the horse, go to a show and clean house." Maybe if they have been working long and hard, their horse is fine tuned to the hilt and ready to go... Yeah, they could get away with it. But even then, their horse is not fine tuned from hanging out in the pasture as a lawn ornament while the owner binge watches their favorite TV shows.

Winners train. We take lessons, we talk to people, we read books, we watch videos, we attend clinics, we go to shows and when we don't do as well as we thought we should have.... We take a step back and look at what happened. We try to figure out how to IMPROVE. What we don't need to worry about anymore, what we should focus on instead, our strengths, our weaknesses. E.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. It's almost an obsession for some of us. And some of us are incredibly far more anal about things than others, but we all strive to do more, do better, get to the top, stay on top and reach our goals. Once reached, we set new goals and keep going.

I won't call the complainers Losers, although those who lose, often complain. But there are enough people out there who don't put out much effort, don't bother to try harder and when they don't place or even come in last, blame the horse, blame the footing, blame the judge, blame the announcer, blame the time, blame the place and blame the sky for being blue that day.... AS IF!!! That shit gets old pretty fast and soon we don't want to be around them anymore.